(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pants-type absorbent product which has a waist opening at an upper end and a pair of leg openings on a lower part.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In a disposal diaper for receiving excrement from a wearer, elasticity has been conventionally applied to various portions in order to improve fitting to the wearer or improve an appearance of the disposal diaper.
In a pants-type disposal diaper disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-172132 (Document 1), contracted members parallel to a waist opening are continuously provided from right and left leg opening edges to positions close to an absorbent core (or to a position corresponding the absorbent core), and the leg opening edges in an outer form sheet thereby contract toward the central side in a width direction of the disposal diaper, to prevent the leg opening edges from fluttering and enhance an appearance around legs of the disposal diaper.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-112308 (Document 2) discloses a pants-type disposal diaper where a waist opening portion and a pair of leg opening portions are provided with an elastic member forming continuous gathers around the entire circumference of each of the peripheral edges, and a body-surrounding portion between the waist opening portion and the pair of leg opening portions is provided with an elastic member forming continuous gathers around almost the whole of the body-surrounding portion. In the disposal diaper, a crotch region of a front part, the crotch region being a urination point, is provided with a plurality of elastic members extending from one opening edge of the pair of leg opening portions to the other opening edge, and continuous gathers are formed in the urination point toward a width direction of the disposal diaper, to thereby improve fitting in the urination point.
In the disposal diaper of Document 1, since portions in the vicinities of the leg opening edges in the outer sheet are gathered toward the central portion in the width direction by contracting the elastic members provided in the leg opening edges, there is a possibility that the legs of a wearer are strongly compressed by decreasing flexibility of the portions in the vicinities of the leg opening edges. The legs of the wearer might not be smoothly inserted into leg openings in wearing the disposal diaper, which decreases the comfort of the wearer. Further, there is a possibility that the appearance of the disposal diaper is reduced by drawing the leg opening edges toward the center in the width direction.
In the disposal diaper of Document 2, the elastic members provided around the entire circumferences of the pair of leg opening portions and the elastic members provided in the urination point cross each another in the vicinities of the leg openings, and fitting of the portions in the vicinities of the leg openings are decreased in crossing portions of these elastic members, which decreases the comfort of a wearer in wearing the disposal diaper.